happy hallidays.

Really though... happy holidays to one and all! It's been an exciting year and--as always--we are loving finishing it off by celebrating the life of our Savior with the ones we love.

This year we have stayed busy to say the least. Todd finished the first year of his MBA and spent his summer doing research with a few different professors at the Marriott School. This fall he started year two and woke up morning after morning super duper early to work on PhD program applications. If all goes according to plan he'll be starting his PhD in Strategy (nerdy businessy stuff) next fall. We'll find out the location of our next adventure come late February/early March. Outside of school Todd has had fun playing intramural soccer, doing more nerdy stuff (this time of the simulated basketball variety), and awaiting the new Star Wars movie which he finally got to see for the second time this afternoon.

Momma also stayed busy this year. First by creating another human being. That was pretty exciting. I also stayed busy with the primary in our ward and the service committee for the MBA Spouse Association. I also got to play on a few different intramural teams. Todd got the amazing husband award again this year while I left night after night to play volleyball, flag football, and soccer. The co-ed volleyball team I played on even made it all the way to the championship game! Which we blew. Darn. Anyhow... this year has been splendid and I have loved all of the adventures my boys and I have gone on. We've played hard, eaten well, and loved a lot.

Just now Todd asked me if I think people see pictures of us from our early years and think we look young. I'm going to say probably. Here's us now though... still looking lively, ya?

Peter Ashton grew up the most out of all of us. In February he started using the potty, in March he found his vocabulary, in April he became a big brother, and this August he turned 3! He's also grown about a foot and has the wildest imagination. Lately he has been a donkey... which was perfect for our little nativity play tonight. Peter has energy like you wouldn't believe. He can go go go... that's probably why he still takes a solid nap and eats like a teenager! When he's not running laps around the house he enjoys writing his letters, cooking pretend meals, going to the library, and running errands. He's an amazing helper and he loves his little brother. 

Almost 4 weeks early Calvin decided to make us a family of four. The Saturday before he was born Peter announced that baby brother was coming soon. We laughed and asked him when. He said, "Next Thursday." The next Thursday came and lo and behold my water broke that evening. Luckily aunt Marysa was already at our house so we packed up some half-hearted hospital bags and headed out. That all started at about 6pm. The next day at 1pm our itty bitty Calvin arrived! And holy moly were we glad. He sure took his sweet time. After a few days we settled on "Calvin Scott" and we're pretty sure he's the sweetest little Calvin Scott ever. Since joining us in April Calvin has tripled in size, learned how to sit up, eat all of the foods, and as of this week he has learned how to play silly games and do the worm to get around the room. Calvin loves his family. He's especially a momma's boy.

These two... already best buds.

There you have it. We're older, possibly wiser. We've had tons of fun and worked our tails off. We've learned lots and grown closer together.

I've never loved three people more than I love my three boys. They make me all sorts of happy and spending Christmas with them has been especially delightful this year.

We love each other and we love our Savior. We hope you feel of His love this Christmas season and all through this next year.

love,

the Halls

happy donut birthday!

I have started this post again and again. I can't decide if I want to be honest, yet grumpy, or just skim over the details leaving readers with nothing to worry about. 

Well there I've done it. Now you're worrying.

K, fine. Here's a silly grumpy post.

Pretty much I just wasn't looking forward to my birthday at all this year. I don't care about getting old, that's not my problem. My problem is that I've been busy. Busy with good things... like my primary calling in our ward and my position as the service committee head with MBASA. But I've still just been too busy... and in charge. I don't mind being a leader. I enjoy it, really. But unfortunately sometimes being a leader means everyone treats at you like the boss-man... not necessarily their friend. This is a tough lesson that I learned this semester... I am not good at being a leader and a friend to those I'm leading. And this is why I didn't want to have a birthday. Because I felt like I had no friends. Because I knew that it would probably be pretty boring. I knew I wouldn't go out to lunch with my buddies and that no one would stop by. And I knew that it was so silly all at the same time... but feelings are real and I was feeling majorly meh.

That's why I decided to do Donut Day on my birthday. On top of already feeling dumb for wanting attention it was also kinda selfish of me to do Donut Day on this specific Saturday because Todd needed to be studying for a calculus final... but I needed his help making batch after batch of donuts. Fortunately he's a great (understatement) husband who can manage time like no one's business. He might be father time himself. He quietly moved around his schedule and studied his tail off all week so he could spend the day with me and the boys making and delivering donuts.

It ended up working out really well and it was a great way to get out and see some friends on my birthday.

After delivering our last plate of donuts we went to Wendy's for my birthday dinner. I had an incredible head cold and couldn't taste a thing. (Don't tell anyone that ate the donuts, I promise I took lots of precautions not to germ them up!) I thought spicy Wendy's chicken nuggets would do the trick  and clear up my clogged brains but honestly I just felt like more of a loser for eating at Wendy's for my birthday dinner. Haha like I said... it's silly. Especially when I look at the next pictures... 

I have nothing to complain about.

These boys are some of my best friends. And I know for a fact that they are using every once of patience they have on me.

The day after my birthday my parents got to come to town due to my dad having some work meetings in the area. My mom got to accompany me at our MBA Christmas Fireside and afterwards the whole family (minus Hermana Barfuss) had cake and ice cream. Brennan gave me some beautiful flowers and my mom sent my sister and I out to shop and get manicures.

In the end everything turned out just fine.

I may feel like friends are hard to come by these days... and I may be terrified to leave my family to go far away for more school in the fall... but like my dad says, "You'll be fine." And I sincerely think I will be. I just need to learn how be a good friend.

a Pocatello Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty low-key. Usually we get together with lots of family and there are cousins running wild at every hour of the day making all sorts of ruckus. There is always garbage bag after garbage bag after garbage bag full of dirty paper plates and bowls that once held bulk dinners and tasty treats. And the card games. All of the adults always get to stay up "late" and play Rook. Although over the years our extended family has grown and moved farther away and getting together for Thanksgiving has fizzled into smaller groups. This year our group got even smaller and we had our first solo Barfuss family Thanksgiving!

Todd wrapped up classes Tuesday evening and we made our way to Pocatello for a long weekend of yummy food, family, and football.

I was especially proud of our Thanksgiving dinner. Mel had so many new recipes that I had been wanting to try and fortunately my mother is very patient with me and went right along with all of my ridiculous meal planning. Here's what we had... it was all fantastic and you should probably give these recipes a try next Thanksgiving. Or sooner... nothing says "gratitude" like pretzel roll stuffing in April!

Pretzel and Sausage Stuffing

Fresh Cranberry Chutney

Stuffed Apple and Bacon Sweet Potato Casserole

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pie

Classic Pumpkin Pie

We also dined finely on an excellent turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, some killer gravy, and an assortment of uber tasty pies.

I can't forget to mention that Thanksgiving Day marked 5 years since Todd proposed. FIVE YEARS! I know for many of you that's nothing. But right now I'm having a hard time believing it...

Brennan Scott and Calvin Scott.

After Thanksgiving half the party had to return to Utah for work. Fortunately Todd's research job is very flexible so we got to stay for a couple more days. 

No Rook went down but we did make a sweet marble tower.

And we decorated for Christmas! Peter got to put up grandma's special Christmas tree heart. Lucky duck... my siblings and I used to fight every year about who's turn it was.

And that's pretty much what went down this Thanksgiving. We took it pretty easy. The boys had loads of fun, we ate loads of food, and we came back nice and rested for the looming finals week.

Even though our numbers were few we were still very grateful to have family close enough to visit.

I know I've probably shared this already but recently I've also been especially grateful for my boys. They love me no matter how much of a bum I am. They are constantly teaching me and setting examples for me that I didn't know I needed. Because of them I've been able to better understand a stronger, deeper kind of love. A love that isn't even close to the love that the Savior has for me and my family.

The post-baby spiritual slump.

For the last month or so I have felt prompted to do a better job of sharing my religious beliefs, especially here on my blog. Today I got yet another kick-in-the-bum reminder and so I've decided to simply write up a few things that have been on my mind lately.

Over the last few months or so I have been in a slump. I've thought about the why of this slump a lot and I think I can contribute it a lot to having another baby. I love everything about my little Calvin. I really really do. But the truth is that having a baby changes things up a lot. You're all of the sudden on a new schedule and you have another little person to care for and keep happy. You sort of lose yourself... well you give yourself to this new baby. You can imagine that baby #2 threw me for a bit of a loop considering that I love my consistent schedule and my me-time. Anyhow... generally I feel like I adjust really well after having a baby. Minus one important thing... staying on top of my spiritual well-being. After I have a baby I am all sorts of motivated to eat healthy and exercise. I get out and about to stay sane. I really do feel like things go well for the most part. Unfortunately... I have always struggled with my "spiritual upkeep" and so having a baby made that even harder.

When I say "spiritual upkeep" I mostly mean being consistent with my scripture study and prayer. I don't know why it's always been hard for me but I have some ideas. It's partially because I probably goofed off in seminary too much and never "learned" how to study. It's partially because I have never found a good time in the day that works best. It's partially because I have (and always have had) a hard time focusing while reading/studying unless it's quiet.... aka nap time but all you mommas know the struggle of deciding what to do during precious nap time. It's partially because I just don't know where to start. It's not because I don't want to study. I really do. I know that when I do study the scriptures that I am blessed with guidance on how to be a better wife and mother. I am blessed with the spirit and I am more patient and loving. I have seen this happen in my life as I have studied... so what has been the hang up? Why have I been in this slump?

A few weeks ago I finally realized (after multiple swift kicks in the bum by general authorities, etc.) that I needed to stop wasting time not bettering myself through scripture study. It was time to make things happen and figure it out. And so I just sat down with my scriptures and said a prayer pleading with my Father in Heaven that he would guide my thoughts and actions and that I would be able to study and learn what I personally needed to learn. And sure enough that's exactly what happened. And that is what has happened every day for almost three weeks now. I haven't studied at the same time for any of those days but I am learning that either during Calvin's first nap or after bedtime is working well. Either way... the Lord answered my prayers. Because He loves me and wants me to become better. That's why He has given us this restored gospel. Because He loves us!

Today in Sunday school we talked about different attributes of Christ and our teacher made a great point about being sympathetic/empathetic and non-judgmental. She made the point that our whole lives we have been taught that we need to work our bums off so that we can get the best grades, scores, and times in school and sports, etc. We have been taught to be competitive and unfortunately that often translates over into our spiritual lives. But spiritually there is no competition. There is no first or second place. We are all working towards the same goal... returning to live with our families and our Father in Heaven. We need to lift one another up and serve and love one another so that we can all reach that goal.

I have been lifted up by wonderful examples in my life. Especially over the last six months when I just kept feeling more and more lame. I have been so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people. I have been incredibly blessed to have a husband that loves and encourages me and leads by example in our home.

I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me. I know that part of that plan includes struggling with scripture study and prayer. I know that through these struggles I have developed a stronger testimony of the importance of scripture study and prayer. I'm so glad that I have this testimony to lean back on and rely on so that when/if I do fall back into a slump I can remember the joy, peace, and direction that scripture study and prayer brings me.

How blessed we are to have the restored gospel on the earth. We have temples where we can be sealed to our families for all eternity. We have prophets and apostles that lead Christ's church through revelation from God. We have prayer to communicate our needs and gratitude to God and we have the Book of Mormon and Bible through which God teaches us and answers our personal prayers.

There is no where else in the world where you can find the joy that Christ brings. He loves all of us and I am so grateful that He answers my prayers and blesses me... as lame and undeserving as I may feel, He is always there.

a real life Halloween.

Another Halloween is in the books for the Halls! There were some moments when we tried and there were some when we just didn't. Haha and I'm sure we'll just try less and less as the years go by, right?

Let's start with what we didn't try with.

Our costumes. Really we didn't. Todd and I already had our costumes from the premiere of Harry Potter 7.2 and we borrowed Peter's lion costume and scarf. Okay so I made Calvin's little mandrake hat but seriously we didn't try too hard. And it showed as our award winning costume streak ended this year. The last two years were pretty solid with our Cloudy w/ a Chance of Meatballs theme and then our Frankestein theme. Turns out people know a lot less about Harry Potter than expected. I'm going to say it's because we're younger than the MBA crowd but older than our ward crowd so no one that we hang with falls into that window of excessive Harry Potter geekdom.

Anyhow. If you're about our age you probably hopefully know who we're dressed up as.

We I did try with the soup and chili cook-offs though! We took Mel's Butternut Squash and Coconut Curry Soup with Shrimp and Rice Noodles to our ward party and we took Angelyn Baumgartner's chili to the MBASA party. Do I know who Angelyn is? Nope... but my aunt passed on her recipe so I should at least give her some credit right? Maybe I should take her my golden ladle that we won.

We kind of tried with pumpkin carving. We basically ran out of evenings to carve them and Thursday night we whipped these babies out. Peter requested a lion, Todd carved a Pelican (go team!), and mommy held Calvin... then did a heart-eyes emoji face that took about 2 minutes. Sweet.

We decided to keep our actual Halloween pretty low-key. And by low-key I mean go from stake soccer to intramural volleyball to sushi burrito to the temple to making a big ol' mess of the kitchen to make our Halloween dinner. Usually there's some party going down on Halloween. Ya know... chili and cornbread and a trunk-or-treat. Not this year! So we did our own thing. A pumpkin bake!

I had seen some pumpkin bakes floating around the interwebs and thought it'd be fun to try out. And it was!

It tasted pretty good too! Basically a cream cheesy chicken and rice casserole baked inside of a pumpkin.

We also tried with these pudding cups. And they just didn't want to work out. The pudding was tasty (and homemade #thankyouverymuch) but those darn rolos would not stick to the cups no matter what we tried. Oh well. p.s. I learned that Todd loves box pudding. So yeah next time we'll go the easy route. (:

There you go... our Halloween adventures for the year! It was loads of fun and really I think Peter had a blast and that's what really matters. I mean heck, he got to wear his costume like 10 times. And it was an easy costume... which made it a blast for me too. (:

Happy Halloween!

date day in

Last Friday my boys and I had a very fun day. Todd had the car in Ogden, you see, so technically we were stuck at home all day. Cooped up. With potential to go stir-crazy. For reals... we stay too busy every other day running errands, going to the library, doing MBASA stuff, etc. so without the car we were in for it. Todd even checked and checked and checked again that it was okay that we'd be without the car. Little did he know that I was actually really excited about it. We were practically being forced to take it easy and I was pretty pumped!

Since Todd and I would be having a date night out that evening I thought it would be fun to have a "date day in" with Peter and Calvin. And so a date day in we had!

We started the morning just like we start every other morning... cartoons and breakfast at 6am. At least I'm pretty sure that's what happens. Daddy is up already and takes care of all of that. I usually join the party with Mr. Calvin around 7:30 depending on how well Calvin slept. Anyhow... 

Our first activity of the day was a little baking fun. Todd and I needed to take a treat on our date so Peter helped me make s'more bars. He was a great helper and I love that he always wants to be a helper in the kitchen. He even wanted to help me over watching Wild Kratts. Now that's a complement! On that note... we watch one of Peter's friends everyday for a few hours and everyday without fail they have the conversation about where their mommies are and that I'm Peter's mommy, etc. Today Peter said, "This is my mommy, she is my friend!"

My heart! He likes me!

So yeah we made those s'more bars together because we're friends... and they turned out great!

Let's be honest... he just likes to help so he can lick all of the spoons.

While our bars was cooling we went on a run. We saw the usual horsies, puppies, birdies... and the garbage truck! Always a treat. (:

Later on after nap time we played with friends at the park and went down to the safety fair to watch a helicopter land on the softball field. Last year the helicopter was too busy and couldn't come so we were pretty excited when they announced that it was on it's way!

It flew a few circles around us then made it's landing. The kids got to look inside and sit in the seats until it had to leave on another rescue mission. (We're all about "to the rescue" at our house right now thanks to Wild Kratts and Superman.)

Thus ended our date day in. Looking back it wasn't much, but it was still fun to set everything else aside and focus solely on my boys and making them extra happy for the day.

And because I know you're all wondering about the date night out... it pretty much went like this...

Plus a little Piano Man, Frozen, Aretha Franklin, and so forth. I can confidently say that my nerves about karaoke were successfully put at ease and the ice between me and karaoke has been broken haha.

domestic goddess

I feel like the last few weeks have been filled to the brim with homemaking and other domestic stuff. Well except cleaning. I'm horrible at that. I'll do the dishes every day but I'm no good at the rest of it. Anyhow. I've particularly spent a lot of time in the kitchen the last while and tonight I got thinking about something...

As I was canning some peach-raspberry jam for the first time in my life (!!!) I thought to myself... dang, after tonight I'm going to get a major punch in my domestic goddess card!

Then I realized something... why isn't a domestic goddess card a thing?! I mean men have their "man cards" so why shouldn't us women have domestic goddess cards? I think we should. I'm starting it right now. And here's how it works...

So men get punches in their cards for doing semi-manly/feminine things. And that's frowned upon?? Whatever. So us domestic godddess-folk... we get punches for doing feminine/domestic goddess-like things because getting punches is actually a good thing. 

And that's it!

Super simple. Tonight I got a punch in my domestic-goddess card for making and canning jam. I also made a pretty tasty dinner so that's another punch.

And I think I'll give myself a punch for every *pop* that I hear... 'cause that means the canning is working!

Sweet!!

provo eats.

Todd and I have become food snobs of a sort. We used to love eating at Chili's and Olive Garden but now there are so many awesome local food places that we basically turn up our noses at chain restaurants. We can't help ourselves... it's a generational thing. That being said we will always love a trip to Wendy's and Panda Express now and then. But really there are just so many other small & fun hole-in-the-wall joints nowadays so going to a place that we could also go to across the country, or even in a different country, is less appealing.

Here are the local joints that we love and think you should love too... (star=a favorite, repeat visits, can't love without, etc.)

1. El Gallo Giro*
2. La Dolce Vita
3. Zeek's Pie Shake Parlour*
4. 180 Street Tacos*
5. Ivie Juice Bar
6. Sensuous Sandwich*
7. Cubby's Chicago Beef*
8. Bombay House
9. Clarke's Island Donuts*
10. The Chocolate*
11. Provo Bakery*
12. La Jolla Groves*
13. Malawi's
14. Joe Bandito's Fiestaraunt
15. Mo'bettah's
16. Bambam's BBQ
17. Hokulia Shave Ice*
18. Pho Plus*
19. Shirley's Homemades
20. Waffle Love
21. Baked Bakery & Cafe
22. Mama Z's
23. Sweeto Burrito
24. Bom Acai
25. Roll Up Cafe
26. Rita's
27. Taste*
28. The Mighty Baker*
29. Sushi Burrito
30. Bruges*
31. Cup Bop
32. Molly's

And these are the places that we want to love...

1. Black Sheep Cafe
2. Hot Pots
3. Pantrucas
4. Communal
5. Chef's Table
6. Hruska's Kolaches
7. Enliten Bakery & Cafe
8. Fruta Crush
9. Station 22
10. Good Thyme

What do you think? Did I miss any??

loves.

five years of lovin'.

Over the summer my boys and I went on lots of fun adventures. We spent many a weekend in Idaho and we did our best to have fun in Provo and the surrounding areas. I'd say we were pretty successful and this last summer might have been one of the best Provo summers yet. #thesummerofprovo

One of these fun activities was going camping up Hobble Creek canyon. We only went for about 24 hours since Calvin was still a wee one but it was still enjoyable to get out and relax. Outside of playing by the creek and eating yummy camping food we also went on a little hike to find some waterfalls that Todd and I frequented back in our dating days.

Five years ago... we went on a hunt to find these waterfalls. I had hiked up to them with a group of friends the year before and I wanted to find them again with Todd. It took us a couple trips but we finally found those blasted falls. We had been dating for a few months and Todd had used the "L" word. It took me a few weeks but finally, as we were sitting on top of the falls, I mustered up the courage to drop the "L" bomb too. Okay it might have taken me like two hours of just sitting there counting down in my head 'cause I was so nervous. Haha but I said it and he looked at me with the happiest, calmest, most pleasant face he'd ever made. I panicked and ask, "Is that okay?" haha and he answered with a big ol' hug and a... oh wait, no. That kissing business hadn't happened yet haha. ;)

This time around the falls were pretty non-existent due to a dry winter. That paired with an extremely whiny and tired three year-old and the moment was slightly less romantic. Nonetheless we're on five years of lovin' and hands down it's been the best 5 years of my life.

I've learned a lot about how to really love someone. I sure lucked out that Todd has been the one on the receiving end... mostly because he has been so patient with me. And trust me guys, I take a lot of patience. 

♥♥♥

the rest of the ketsup.

Seriously though... should I keep the ketsup joke?? Either way I still have some catching up to do. And so in a typical Katelyn fashion here is a picture dump from my phone from the last week or so.

Let's jump right in!

We went to the Studio C season 6 premiere and got great seats right on the 50-yard line.

The boys didn't love the tween screaming very much but the bubble soccer game and sketches were pretty funny. And yeah about that tween screaming... it's hilarious! I mean we really like Studio C. Mostly because all of it's members were a part of Divine Comedy during our undergrads so we've been watching them do comedy for years. And one of their best-of shows was our first date. (: Not to mention that Matt was our next door neighbor and he almost ran over me with his truck once. But yeah teenagers nowadays are obsessed.

We've also started sleep training. Or should I say we've completed sleep training?? JK I don't want to jinx anything but Calvin has done an awesome job. He cried it out for maybe an hour tops the first night and cried less by ten minutes intervals for a few nights... and now he either fusses for a few minutes or goes right to sleep! I'm so proud of him! We didn't know he'd do this well so last week we took our neighbors giant cookies and ear plugs to sweeten them up before Calvin potentially kept them up in the middle of the night.

Last week we also got to meat Daniel Tiger!! (Insert more tween screaming.) Peter only got a tiny bit nervous when it was our turn to take a picture with him. Good job Peter!

These two love tummy time... bunch o' weirdos.

GOTHE was this weekend! SOO much stuff for SOO many people! I love being a part of this event. We walked away with some clothes for the boys and a nice fully loaded pack'n'play. Initially I felt guilty taking it because we already have one but ours is so old and gross... but I'm glad I did because when I brought our old one back to donate it the first girl in line was so excited to see that there was going to be a pack'n'play inside! And heaven knows the nice one was going to be gone before she made it in there for general student shopping. I'm glad I could help her out. (: 

Lastly... last night was the MBAA opening social. These parties are also fully loaded. Catered food, face painters, balloon artists (?), and tons of games and treats.

My inner child jumps right out of me anytime there is face painting going on within ten miles. I don't know why I like it so much... I think this stemmed from all those times at amusements parks and state fairs, etc. when I would beg my parents for one... oh wait, this is the churro story from my last post. You get the point haha. Anyway... I asked the painter lady what kind of designs and such she did and she listed off some fun animals and flowery things then mentioned that she is practicing her tribal warrior patterns. So of course I was like, "Go for it!" She warned me that I'd look like Mike Tyson...

... and she wasn't kidding! Haha! Once she finished she asked if I wanted glitter on top to which I obviously said,

"Absolutely."